Appeal No. 97-1761 Page 10
Application No. 08/380,223
For the reasons set forth above, the decision of the
examiner to reject claims 16 through 19, 23 and 24 under 35
U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Yano or Kuhl in view
of the admitted prior art is reversed.
Rejection utilizing Zimmer
Zimmer discloses a yieldable shaft coupling. As shown in
Figure 2, the shaft coupling includes a casing 1, a flange 2,
a spring coupler B and flange 17. The spring coupler B
includes a tube having two helical slots 3 and 4 spaced apart
by portion 5. The slots 3 and 4 form two helical spring
sections and the slots 3 and 4 are respectively right hand and
left hand.
The teachings of the admitted prior art and the evidence
in the Pruitt declaration have been set forth above.
Upon evaluation of all the evidence before us, we reach
the conclusion that it would not have been obvious to one of
ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made
to replace the single coil spring in the prior art linear
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